1/48 Academy Mig-29

by Kaan Gök

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This Academy Mig-29 kit was one of the first kits I bought from a local store when I started modeling. It was collecting dust on the "pile", until I decided to build it a couple of months ago. While the kit was waiting its turn to be completed, I accumulated lots of aftermarket for the kit. (Even more than necessary, I bought a second Academy mig-29 kit to use the surplus details).

I used the following aftermarket sets on this model:

  • -Aires cockpit set

  • -Part photoetched details

  • -Cutting Edge nozzles

  • -Eduard Soviet AA missile set

  • -Airdoc decals

I replaced the Academy cockpit with the Aires set. Academy's cockpit could only be considered as a joke, nothing is correct. Therefore a cockpit set is a necessity for this model (rather than an option).

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Academy could not get the missiles right, either. (Just like the su-27 kit). I used the Eduard Soviet missiles set with a little scratchbuilding to make them look like real ones. The R-73 and R-60 bodies are passable, but the R-27 missiles were clearly wrong size. I constructed them using plastic tubes and the cone of a 1/72 Phoenix missile. Luckily it was just the right size. Assembling every single missile took more than one full evening, including starting over-and over. Some of the PE details could not handle this, and they needed to be fabricated from styrene.

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Another wrong area of the Academy kit is it's nose. It is too pointy. I normally do not compare kit parts to the drawings and try to correct milimetric errors, but this one needs to be corrected. It spoils the whole look of the 29. I recontoured it with epoxy putty, normal putty and mr surfacer+lots of sanding.

Speaking of size problems, the horizontal stabilizers are too small (compared to the drawings in the Airdoc book), but I left them as-is. They do not get much attention on the model like the nose.

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Coming to the pylons: kit pylons are (guess what?) inaccurate. I reshaped the ones for R-27 missiles (APU-470), and front ends of R-73 pylons. Back ends of R-73 pylons should be different than the ones on the kit, too, But I did choose to not correct them. The kit provides two sets of R-60 pylons, one set is to be used for R-73's.

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I painted the model with model master enamels, and weathered using pastels. The nose cones of German Fulcrums show an interesting weathering model-paint chipping. Germans tried to paint the radomes and dielectric areas of their fulcrums with the airframe color, but the paint did not stick well to the radome and felt off. I tried to replicate this pattern by painting dark grey using a 3/0 brush.

I also added the navigation light on top of the spine (using shaped clear sprue), and replaced the IRST dome on front of the windscreen using shaped clear sprue again. The last modification was to add some brake lines to the landing gear using copper wire and static dischargers using fishing lines, and the model is finished.

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Kaan

Photos and text © by  Kaan Gök